Who’s really in control these days…

The takeover at EMI has done something great for all music fans. It has confirmed what was always true but never fully realised – record labels don’t own the music. True, artists have willingly handed over their rights for 50 pieces of silver but the tide has turned and artists are finally cottoned onto the fact that they make the music and they actually own it also. Some like The Rolling Stones have bought and sold those rights so often that they might sometimes forget. Others like The Beatles have had those rights sold from under them but the wealthy ex-EMI and current EMI artists are showing that the evolution of music ownership is well underway.

Radiohead delivered all the albums they had to and now enjoy the luxury of licensing their music to who and how they want. And it’s not only EMI artists, Prince has done much the same thing also – shame about his choice of newspaper. Easy with millions in the bank for sure but set yourself up right and what’s to stop anyone doing that. Now Coldplay are setting another precedent. If you have a ticket from their tour then you can download a nine-track live album for free from their website. Smart move, drives traffic to their site (like they need it), gives something back, repaying loyalty to those that bought a ticket.

Does this mean the end of music labels? Of course not, it only signifies that they’re going to have face up to the real world and the fact that they’re brilliant at marketing and that is the only guaranteed role they may play in the future.

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Living In Another World

Citing Talk Talk’s Living In Another World as one of my all-time favourite tracks gives away my age but what the hell it still sounds so damn fine in every respect to my ears. One of the frustrations of the digital age of music, OK it’s still early days, has been that a lot of the extras tracks, remixes, 12-inch versions of singles and so on have taken forever to appear in legal versions. One of the ones that’s been on my list has been the 12-inch version of Living In Another World.

Sure, I still have the vinyl version, not worn out yet, and I could digitise it but one of the advantages for me as a consumer and for the music owners is that I can relive the thrill of buying it all over again. Unfortunately, this is not quite the case.

EMI, in its eternal wisdom has made the Remixed: Talk Talk available on iTunes – hurrah. The only rather sizable fly in the ointment is that only six of the 12 tracks (yes 50% of the album) can be bought individually and of course Living In Another World is not one of them. So, the original dilemma is back – digitise my own copy, find a pirate version or buy the whole album. Why am I pushed into that set of choices? We’re now living in the age of variable pricing, so if the six other tracks are perceived to be the draw and so more valuable why not price them that way and let me pick and choose.

Old thinking in the new world.

Just when you think the music labels are moving into the 20th century, you get a little reminder that large pockets of stupidity remain alive and well.

My decision? I bought the album but my perception of the label and industry, not the band, is tarnished (yet again) and my gut instinct was to go to the pirate sites, sticking the virtual two fingers up but I respect the artists involved. No wonder pirate sites will remain the bigger destinations. Dumb and Dumber…

EMI fiddling about

Not really a customer launch nor a testbed but kinda a bit of both and not taking on Amazon or iTunes. EMI’s latest digital initive has uncertainty written all over it. Some content will be free to download while others will have to be paid for. News on DRM or MP3 formatting has yet to be revealed.

All you need are Hands

Early days maybe but Guy Hands has got EMI going in the right direction if the latest quarterly results are to be believed. Revenues are up 61% making the £45 million+ loss of last year a fast-fading memory.